Chairman may be last one standing

ESSENDON chairman David Evans could be the only key member of the club's hierarchy to survive if the Bombers are found to have breached anti-doping rules, an expert on corporate governance says.

Brendan O'Connell, a professor of accounting at Melbourne's RMIT University, said everyone at the club with a ''hands-on'' involvement in the supplement controversy could be culpable.

O'Connell said coach James Hird, senior assistant Mark Thompson and other key management, would have clauses in their contracts relating to bringing the club into disrepute.

Those directly involved in the supplement program overseen by Stephen Dank would be responsible if any charges arose from an investigation of Essendon by the AFL and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority.

''Whether or not the investigations prove that illegal substances were taken, we have to recognise that what has seemingly occurred there is some fairly unorthodox practices that have certainly pushed the envelope to the maximum at the very least,'' O'Connell told Melbourne's SEN radio.

He said it was possible Essendon had breached their duty of care to players in terms of workplace health and safety by exposing them to ''cutting edge'' drugs that might not be well tested.

O'Connell said Hird and others, including chief executive Ian Robson, might be culpable in a way that Evans and the club board were not.

''The people that are responsible for the day-to-day operations of an organisation are essentially the chief executive officer, the football manager and the coach,'' O'Connell said. ''They are the ones who deal with operational matters and the players directly.''

Dank has said he did not inject any Essendon player with a prohibited substance and that Hird knew of the program the club had in place for its players.

He said he would be surprised if the players did not know what supplements they were taking because they had been fully briefed.

AAP

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